Presentation
The DVD box is more attractive than the “newer” Balto and Wolf Quest DVD/videos. The characters look more true to the original and Balto has obviously cleaned himself up this time and had a shave. The DVD artwork still has that plastic look to the characters, but with the exception of Kodi’s scary eyes, it is an attractive package.

The DVD itself
The DVD I have is from Germany, a PAL region 2 disc, it has an English 5:1 soundtrack and s presented in widescreen format. Aside from the movie for a moment, the DVD extras are like the Wolf Quest DVD (and the US Balto DVD), i.e. disappointing. There is a Land Before Time #324542andsomething trailer which I have no bothered watching yet and a game.

The game however isn’t that bad although obviously aimed at children especially with that Barneyesque voiceover. A lot from the first movie has been used and it is a nice blast from the past that will encourage more people who haven’t seen the original to seek it out and buy or rent. It is nice to see a reference to the original that obviously enchanted so many people in the first place.

The DVD options do flow very well, when you click on the option, part of the movie plays and it flows into the next screen. It is quite nice and it doesn’t give anything away if you haven’t seen the movie yet. It is much more interesting than the flicking between screens on the previous 2 DVDs.

I would have liked to have seen more extras, the people at Universal who work that part out need to take a page from Disney’s book here but realistically there is not much point due to the audience this movie is aimed at.

Now onto the movie itself.

First Impressions
The title was clever; it shows the film title with the background of an old news real similar to the clips I have on my site in the Real Balto section, a nice touch.

The art work is what hits you first, it looks more natural than Wolf Quest, the backgrounds themselves have the look of oil and acrylic paints which again is much more true to the original movie and this time less corners have been cut, where the sky has actually been drawn in places, and in others blended into animation a lot better, and the water looks a lot less like a computer generated oil slick.

The town is very true to the original movie, you can recognise places we have seen before so much so that it appears at one part of the movie, Balto almost has a flash back in an alleyway while surrounded by howling dogs. The surrounding area is also much more realistic and linked to the original and more of the town is opened up to the viewer. Details have been added which all help in a realistic impression of what Nome should look like and the music kicks in straight away and is very rewarding to listen to.

Characters
Unlike Wolf Quest, we actually have human characters which make the whole movie a lot more believable from the beginning; the viewer will recognise a few from the first movie including a certain little girl who knows Balto. She is no more than a background character (is that a bad thing?) but at least it acknowledges the first movie.

Balto is obviously back along with Jenna, Boris, Muk ‘n’ Luk and Kodi if you count him from Wolf Quest (voiced by Sean Astin of Lord of the Rings fame [Balto was a better movie anyway so you can understand the switch!]). Unfortunately there are still no sign of any other well loved original characters, however in the early part of the movie there is a very familiar yellow husky (minus a brown eye patch) barking from a window. It could be, it could not be but it looks like him.

Of course there are new characters too, sled dogs in Kodi’s team, the bush pilot “Duke”, town dogs and the goose known as ‘Stella’.

Character art
The characters have definitely been drawn to a higher standard, Balto is less rounded in his features (like the original), Jenna doesn’t look like a drug addict anymore and her paws are small (again like in the original) and the other dogs although new, could have been taken right out of the original movie background character list. Even Muk and Luk seem to have had time taken on them to keep them looking original (although the year in the movie is 1928 and they still haven’t grown up!).

Oh yeah and a very important fact, Balto has yellow eyes again!! This time round, it actually looks like the artists have really done their homework; it appears they have studied the original Balto artwork (which must have been hard as I own most of it!) and have really been inspired to make a really nice finished product. It feels like these drawings are warmer and full of more emotion than in Wolf Quest.

Kodi impressed me, in Wolf Quest although Aleu was Balto and Jenna’s daughter, she never felt like she was. Kodi on the other hand has Balto and Jenna traits in him, in his looks, his movement, his emotions, his facial expressions etc. And this time there seemed to be a real connection between father and son which was really nice to see.

One thing I did notice was the highlights and shadows. Like Wolf Quest it looks like someone has gone mad in Photoshop with the airbrush, lighten and darken tools but unfortunately not used the magic wand tool. Although these are in many places done quite tastefully, I did notice that there was some confusion as to where the light source was coming from and (very small) bits were missing. A good example was the shadows the characters cast on the floor. These shadows should appear to be going underneath the character’s feet and bodies but just as the dark patches come in contact with the line drawing, it stops just short leaving a very thin (a pixel or two) patch of background around them which looks almost like an opaque glow. Despite this the characters do seem to react with their environment more compared to Wolf Quest, moving parts of it, kicking snow and dirt up etc without “becoming one” with anything.

Animation
The animation has improved dramatically since Wolf Quest. Fewer corners have been cut and the character’s movement is a lot nicer and more fluid. The way they are drawn too has a very nice 1995 movie feel to it. The human characters and the animal characters have maintained that scratchy almost angular look to them which just feels right and almost reflects the harsh environment around them. We all know real wolves don’t have triangular ears like that but like the yellow eyes, without them, any true Balto fan knows it just isn’t right.

As I have stated already, less corners have been cut, animation has not been looped as much especially while dogs have been running. Time has been taken to make individual frames which again remind me of the original, the dogs and humans all move a lot more naturally and the characters are making full use of the whole screen and not just stuck in the middle.

There is still room for improvement though, you still see frames where the legs are moving and body is not reacting in the way you would expect but these are few and far between so they can be overlooked.

Kodi is one of the most pleasing characters and actually looks like the offspring of Balto and Jenna, his behaviour, movement and facial features/expressions are very reminiscent of Balto which is a vast improvement on his daughter Aleu. The way he moves and talks reflects his father so well you find yourself remembering scenes from the original movie.

I did find as I watched the movie that the animators have been more adventurous with camera angles this time but unfortunately the animation and character design can suffer in places where the stranger angles are almost a bit too difficult to draw right (e.g. looking up at Jenna’s white masked face and some rear views of the running sleddogs). But again this is a small problem that is not common in the movie.

Computers have obviously been used in the movie but relied on less or at least hidden with greater success. The original movie did use a lot of computers to colour frames, add the snow etc and a more minimalist approach has been taken with modern technology here. The snow affects are back from the first and they look just as good. The plane has obviously also been CGI animated in places and almost reminds me of the style in Futurama.

Speaking of CGI, the CGI water does make a return however it is much better than the fluid in Wolf Quest, it is still obviously computer generated but this time it fits in a little better than before but I think there is still room for improvement here.

What I did find surprising was 3D animation in the movie alla Shrek. It was noticeable but it did fit in quite well and it was of high quality which is surprising for a DTV movie. However this sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. During a white water scene, the computer animation looks too smooth and not as natural as you would expect. Personally it appears the CGI works better for the man made objects rather than natural material.

Acting
This is another area that has been improved upon, I found a lot of acting in Wolf Quest to be quite wooden in places especially with Aleu but this time the cast has pulled out all the stops. Kodi is voiced by non other than Sean Astin from “Lord of the Rings” and provides a really good deep character full of emotion.

Balto, Jenna and Boris are all voiced by the previous actors from Wolf Quest but this time Jenna has become a much stronger female character much like she was in the original with Bridget Fonda and Boris actually sounds Russian rather than Jewish too. Balto sounds pretty much the same as in Wolf Quest and I still am waiting for him to mutter the words “…try to take over the world!” which is what Disney seems to be doing with all these sequels at the moment! There are parts where he sounds more like Kevin Bacon than others but on the whole it is a good performance.

What was interesting was that Maurice LeMarche (Balto) also lends his voice to two mooses (the evil bear has been replaced by an evil moose) one a Robert DeNiro “Your talkin’ to me?” style moose and another “Good Feathers – Animaniacs/Good Fellas” style American-Italian gangster moose. This was quite funny at first however the repeating “you takin’ to me?” got a bit tedious after about the third time.

Soundtrack
The background music was interesting. It did keep the sound of the original Balto (James Horner could have written it) and then some surprising tracks were thrown in, I was not expecting to hear a jazz band complete with drum kit playing, but this 1920’s style swinging jazz actually worked really well and left me confused as to how it could possibly work as well as it did.

Throughout the whole movie though, the background music is subtle and not overpowering at all. It provides accents to the scenes which helps portray the mood which is what background music should do.

Now onto the other music, the songs which I have mixed feelings about but I think I share my opinion with others on this. The title song is pretty good and has a nice tone to it, very ‘Reach for the Light’ which was a good start to the movie. I am not so enthusiastic about the other songs though, the ones that are sung by characters. Stella has a song which although I didn’t know about was almost expected. She also had goose backup dancers and the whole scene changed into a Broadway musical in an “All Dogs Go to Heaven” way, which I thought could have been left, however it is obvious what type of audience it was aimed at (although there were some very adult jokes in there too, what does she mean Boris is the one she wants to ‘flock’ with??). Then most shocking of all, Jenna opens up into a soft little number (called ‘Hero’) to Balto which left me with my mouth open and my fingers crossed wishing, just hoping Balto didn’t join in. Thankfully he didn’t and although the song was good and well sung (especially for a husky) again I personally think it could have been left out or used as a background song suck as ‘Taking You Home’ was in Wolf Quest. They were the only 2 songs in the movie sung by characters and if they were not in it, this movie would be very close to the original in style.

Story
In short, Balto dreams of flying (much healthier than dreaming of ghost birds) and is enchanted by an aeroplane he saw, although he has no idea what it is. Meanwhile Boris meets a female goose who likes him in a way that is more than just friends and things start to get interesting for him. Shortly after the plane comes to town and Balto gets a good look at it while the pilot is offering his services to the US mail which Kodi (Balto’ son) is part of the dog team that already delivers the mail to Nome. Obviously the dogs and musher(s) don’t want out of their jobs so the Post Master offers a friendly race of who can deliver the mail the fastest. Naturally Balto joins in to take lead dog and the race is on. The pilot crashes the plane and Balto goes to rescue him and brings him back to Nome.

The story flows a lot better than Wolf Quest and is more believable as there is no becoming one with trees and mice in general. Although it is no Shakespeare it is a nice story that will keep you entertained and this time seems to have an adult audience in mind. Same goes for some adult jokes particularly coming out of the mouth of Stella the goose and at another point where a dog says “what the ff….” which made me laugh.

The story itself is packed with events this time, while watching I found myself looking at what happened so far and then looking at the movie counter and thinking wow there is still a lot more to go! I didn’t get bored with the story or wish it to hurry up at all; I only wish it was longer like I do with the original too.

What was interesting was that there was no traditional bad character, the pilot is considered the enemy by the dogs but he is not a bad person and instead a really likeable character. It is a movie about Alaska, the harsh elements that a dog and human must battle against, it seems to be a story more about regular life which a viewer can probably relate to easily.

It is obvious that the original writers are back (in a good way) as the script alone is written in such a way that Balto, Jenna and all the other original character act how they should do and say little phrases that remind you of the original. These traits are also passed onto Kodi too who as already stated actually acts like the son of Balto.

What was nice to see was a real relationship between Balto and Kodi unlike Aleu which just didn’t feel natural to the viewer. Kodi holds Balto with much respect and is a hero/roll model to him, very different to his sister. I enjoyed this aspect of the movie as Kodi did seem to be a much deeper character; he was like his dad but still an individual with individual opinions and feelings. That admiration and respect was something that was missing from Wolf Quest and I am glad they have included/found it in Wings of Change.

Another aspect in the script was a lot of references dropped in. As Wolf Quest played it was evident that Balto’s famous act was all forgotten especially with the comment that he is still teased about his wolf heritage. However in ‘Wings of Change’, everyone knows what he did, he is Balto the Hero, even the pilot has heard of him and has respect for him. Now the dogs howl for him rather than to tease him which is a really good contrast to the original. This movie flows a lot better on from the original than Wolf Quest does script and story wise and works really well for the die hard Balto fan.

The writers do seem to believe in the “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” lifestyle as there are a few parts of the movie that are almost repeated. Balto has to cross an ice bridge which cracks and breaks away but this time he doesn’t have a team behind him to help pull the injured man up. Balto also finds himself falling down a cliff after the ice has broken up beneath his paws, but instead of a whitewolf waiting for him at the bottom, he finds himself (with Muk and Luk) on a very “Ice Age” ice slide. Also when the team returns to a crowd of “good boy Balto!” you are again reminded of the final scene of the original. Balto also finds himself getting thrown against the floor and nocked unconscious on his back again after taking on the Alaskan wildlife again. I am not sure if this was a good or a bad thing but it was nice to be reminded of scenes from the original. I am glad though that certain aspects have been respectfully left out such as the White Wolf and the magic side of things in Wolf Quest.

A minor fault I found though was there seemed to be a lot of moralistic views repeated by the same or different characters through the movie but this cannot really be avoided in an animated movie that is mostly aimed at children.

This time, the story I personally believe is what all Balto fans want, sled dogs being sled dogs around Nome, day to day life of the hero we all love and following him (as the main character and not shadowed by his offspring) doing what he wants and aspires to do. As a Balto fan the story has pleased me

Conclusion
“Balto: Wings of Change” has been a truly surprising experience. In all honesty I did not know what to expect from the movie at all as the aspects I had seen before (just 2 screenshots and the trailer) were good, Wolf Quest was still in my mind. Although Wolf Quest was OK in it’s own right when not compared to the original (which was hard to do), it never could stand up and hold a candle to the original movie on different levels. But it was not a bad movie, it just wasn’t as good as Balto and most fans weren’t used to the new voice actors back then. Wings of Change however blew those worries out of my head, although Kevin Bacon will always be the perfect voice for Balto, the animation, story and Sean Astin makes up for that many times over. This leaves you with a sequel that Balto himself should be proud of.

The production crew of Balto 3 seem to have really made a heart felt effort to bring the fans what they truly wanted in a Balto movie. It seems like they have thoroughly read up all the comments us fans have made and posted about the world of Balto and created a movie to fit our needs and make us proud rather than making a quick movie to generate some revenue.

Final Thoughts
Although this movie has pleased and excited me, putting a big smile on my face, I do hope this is the last one. Part of me is greedy and wants more Balto but I know in my heart that this should be the end of the Balto saga. All aspects have now been covered, Balto’s fight to be accepted and to become a hero/sleddog, the wolf side of his heritage being explored and now finally his dog side. This makes a fitting end to a well loved story, I only hope that if there is another we don’t see any baby Boris’s running/flapping around, the world can only take one at a time!